1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to processing information and more particularly to a multicore processor and method of use that adapts core functions based on workload execution.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microprocessors for general-purpose workloads, such as those found in servers and in workstations, are designed to balance workload expected at the server or workstation. This often means that trade-offs are made for performing workloads that are floating point intensive or integer intensive by designing in more circuits that are specialized for performing expected operations. Caches are designed to hold critical sections of the workload known as working sets, without increasing the thermal and cost parameters for the processor. Processors designed to perform generalized operations work well for a variety of workloads but are not optimal for any one specific task.
Task-specific processors, such as a digital signal processor device (DSPs), can exceed by many times the performance of general-purpose processors when executing their specialized workloads. However, when a DSP tuned for a specific workload encounters any other workload with even slightly varied characteristics, the DSP tends to run poorly.
Today's general purpose processors are often designed around benchmarks purported to represent the most likely workloads for designed operations. However, if a general-purpose processor is placed in an operational environment that tends to perform more of one operation than another, the operational efficiency will suffer. Similarly, if a specialized processor is placed in an operational environment that differs from its specialized environment, operational efficiency will suffer. The current state for processor design does not allow processors to adapt to workloads dynamically by reconfiguring themselves to match the characteristics of the currently executing software.